The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms: Reprise

Schultz, P. Wesley; Nolan, Jessica M.; Cialdini, Robert B.; Goldstein, Noah J.; Griskevicius, Vladas

doi:10.1177/1745691617693325

Cited by 123 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Words and deeds often differ, and stressing what people approve of may not necessarily induce good responses. The best option seems to be a combination of congruent empirical and normative information, as positive and unambiguous as possible (for a discussion see Schultz et al, 2007Schultz et al, , 2018.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

It's Not a Lie If You Believe It: Lying and Belief Distortion Under Norm-Uncertainty

Bicchieri,

Dimant

2018

SSRN Journal

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We explore the relationship between norm-uncertainty and lying. Lies are ubiquitous, and people often lie for their own benefit or for the benefit of others. Research in environments in which social norms are clearly defined and communicated finds that social norms influence personal decisions, even when they are not in our own self-interest. We deviate from this approach and study lying under norm uncertainty with scope for opportunistic interpretation of the norm. We introduce variation along three dimensions: salience of different types of norm-uncertainty (normative/empirical), the beneficiary of the lie (self/other), and ex-ante knowledge about the opportunity to tell a lie in order to tease out potential belief-distortion mechanisms. We also find compelling evidence that individuals engage in self-serving belief distortion to increase lying overall. However, we observe this only when uncertainty about what others do (empirical uncertainty), but not when uncertainty about what others approve of (normative uncertainty) is made salient. We also observe conditional liars, but only when the lie is self-serving rather than to the benefit of a third party. We discuss policy implications to improve the effectiveness of norm-based interventions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

It's Not a Lie If You Believe It: Lying and Belief Distortion Under Norm-Uncertainty

Bicchieri,

Dimant

2018

SSRN Journal

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“…We suggest closely examining normative and empirical information beyond the simple "majority rule" implemented in typical social norms interventions in order to understand the thresholds at which the interplay of norms and punishment becomes (in)effective. A future avenue of research should examine interventions that prevent self-serving justifications in the presence of descriptive/normative information that is used in both small-and large-scale norm-based interventions (Hallsworth et al, 2017;Schultz et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deviant or Wrong? The Effects of Norm Information on the Efficacy of Punishment

2018

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A stream of research examining the effect of punishment on conformity indicates that punishment can backfire and lead to suboptimal social outcomes. We examine whether this effect is due to a lack of perceived legitimacy of rule enforcement, enabling agents to justify selfish behavior. We address the question of punishment legitimacy by shedding light upon the importance of social norms and their interplay with punishment. Often people are presented with incomplete norm information: either about what most others do (empirical) or what most others deem appropriate (normative). We show that neither punishment nor empirical/normative information in isolation result in prosocial behavior. In turn, we find that prosociality is significantly increased when normative information and punishment are combined, but only when compliance is relatively cheap. When compliance is more expensive, we find that the combination of punishment and empirical information about others' conformity can have detrimental effects on prosocial behavior. We attribute this outcome to the differential ability to distort one's own beliefs about applicable norms. Our results have important implications for researchers and practitioners alike.

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“…This method of behaviour change uses specific normative social information to convey what behaviour other group members do and/or approve or expect. Following that information, a person is provided information about their personal behaviour in relation to others' behaviour and/or approval, which acts as a feedback mechanism (Schultz et al 2018). This facilitates reflection and assessment of one's behaviour in direct relation to the prevailing social norm(s) of the focal group.…”

Section: Social Influencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The challenge and opportunity of behaviour change methods and frameworks to reduce demand for illegal wildlife

Wallen¹,

Daut²

2018

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Biodiversity conservation is contingent upon managing human behaviour and, at times, changing behaviour. This is particularly relevant to the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products, both flora and fauna. Driven by dynamics of consumer demand and illicit supply, mitigation of illegal trade requires a fuller appreciation of human behaviour and methods to change it. In various sectors, social influence, behavioural insights, social marketing and human-centred approaches trend towards mainstream practice and policy application. However, in the context of conservation and wildlife trafficking, these approaches and their usefulness are not well-articulated nor application widespread. Here, we provide a practical overview of relevant behaviour change methods and frameworks. We discuss their usefulness and potential application to mitigating the illegal wildlife trade, in general and consumer demand, in particular.

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The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms: Reprise

Cited by 123 publications

References 23 publications

It's Not a Lie If You Believe It: Lying and Belief Distortion Under Norm-Uncertainty

It's Not a Lie If You Believe It: Lying and Belief Distortion Under Norm-Uncertainty

Deviant or Wrong? The Effects of Norm Information on the Efficacy of Punishment

The challenge and opportunity of behaviour change methods and frameworks to reduce demand for illegal wildlife

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